Edward Cornplanter or So-son-do-wa was a chief of the Seneca people of the Iroquois Nation and a leading exponent of the Code of Handsome Lake.
Background
Cornplanter, the son of Moses and Sarah (Phillips) Cornplanter, was born in November 1856 on the Seneca Cattaraugus Reservation. He was the great-great-grandson of Chief Cornplanter, who led the tribe during the American Revolutionary War.
Career
His Seneca name So-son-do-wa means "Deep Night."
They had three children including Jesse Cornplanter, who became renowned as an artist and author Cornplanter was one of six iroquois authorized as "holders of the Gai"wiio". He regularly traveled among the Iroquois reservations to pass on the teachings.
In 1903 he became concerned that oral transmission of the Gai"wiio' would not keep it from being lost.
He wrote it down from memory and gave the material to the archives of New York State for preservation. In addition to transcribing The Code of Handsome Lake, Cornplanter assisted the New York State Museum in compiling materials about Native American life in the state.
He provided information as to the Iroquois cultivation and use of "maize and other plant foods and many.. myths and tales.".